Preventing Recurrence of Fire at Icheon Logistics Center... Prohibition of Simultaneous Work with Fire Hazards

Firefighters are conducting extinguishing operations at a logistics warehouse construction site fire in Moga-myeon, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, where multiple casualties occurred last April.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] To prevent safety accidents at construction sites, the roles of construction supervisors will be significantly strengthened, including prohibiting simultaneous work on fire-risk processes, prior review of work plans, and increasing the frequency of inspections by non-resident supervisors.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 27th that it had promulgated a partial amendment to the "Detailed Standards for Construction Supervision" on the 24th, containing these measures. This amendment is a detailed task of the construction safety innovation plan announced in April to eliminate safety accidents at construction sites, which account for more than half of industrial accidents.

Through this amendment, simultaneous work on processes with a high risk of fire will be prohibited in the future. In the case of the Icheon logistics center fire accident in April, which resulted in 38 deaths, the cause of the fire was identified as the simultaneous welding and other fire-related work conducted while handling combustible materials and generating oil vapor.

From now on, simultaneous work on processes with a high risk of fire will be fundamentally prohibited. However, an exception will be made if the construction supervisor confirms that there is no oil vapor through sufficient ventilation or installation of mechanical devices for oil vapor exhaust and recognizes that there is no safety hazard.

Also, when working on high-risk processes with a high risk of accidents such as falls or fires, work can only be carried out after the construction supervisor reviews and confirms the work plan containing the work details and safety measures in advance. This system has already been implemented in public construction projects since April last year and will be expanded to private construction projects to prevent human and property damage.

Supervision of small-scale construction projects with a total floor area of less than 2,000㎡ will also be strengthened. Currently, such small-scale projects are supervised by non-resident supervisors who visit and check only some processes, leading to concerns about limitations in ensuring quality and safety. Accordingly, the number of site visits and processes will be expanded, and these will be specifically stipulated in the detailed supervision standards to ensure quality and safety for major processes.

Accordingly, in addition to the existing three processes ▲completion of rebar placement during foundation work ▲completion of roof slab assembly ▲completion of upper slab rebar placement (assembly of main structural parts) every 3 to 5 floors above ground, site visits and inspections will also be conducted for six additional processes: ▲confirmation of the site and permit documents at the start of construction ▲excavation and checking of reference frames ▲completion of floor rebar placement on each floor ▲completion of insulation and window work ▲completion of finishing work ▲before application for use inspection.

A Ministry of Land official said, "We expect that applying detailed, site-centered supervision standards will greatly help prevent safety accidents at construction sites," and added, "Furthermore, we plan to continuously improve the system by significantly expanding the buildings subject to resident supervision and mandating the appointment of dedicated safety management supervisors in addition to construction supervisors through amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.